Timeline of Indigenous Art History of the Americas

This is a chronological list of significant or pivotal moments in the development of Native American art or the visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Earlier dates, especially before the 18th century, are mostly approximate.

11,000 BCE: Fossilized megafauna bone etched with a profile image of a walking mammoth left near Vero Beach, Florida, is the oldest known portable art in the Americas | more

10,050 BCE: Crossed-hatched, bone pendants found at the Mead Site in the Tanana Basin, Alaska, are the earliest known jewelry in the Americas

10,000–7000 BCE: A petroglyph in the Lapa do Santo rock in Minas Gerais, nicknamed “The Little Horny Man,” is the oldest reliably dated rock art in the Americas | more

9250–8950 BCE: Clovis points – thin, fluted projectile points created using bifacial percussion flaking – are created by Clovis culture peoples in the Plains and Southwestern North America

9250–8550 BCE: Monte Alegre culture rock paintings created at Caverna da Pedra Pintada become the oldest known paintings in the Americas.

8900–8200 BCE: Cooper Bison skull is painted with a red zigzag in present-day Oklahoma, becoming the oldest known painted object in North America.

8000 BCE: Fiberwork left in Guitarrero Cave, Peru is the earliest known example of textiles in South America

7650 BCE: Cave painting in the Toquepala Caves, Peru

7370±90 BCE: Stenciled hands are painted with mineral inks at the Cueva de las Manos, near Perito Moreno, Argentina, as well as images of humans, guanacos, rheas, felines, other animals, geometric shapes, the sun, and hunting scenes

7300 BCE: A painted herringbone design from Tecolote Cave in the Mojave Desert of California is the earliest well-dated pictograph in North America.

5630 BCE: Ceramics left at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, Brazil, are the earliest known ceramics in the Americas.

1100–1470: Chimú culture thrives in Chimor, today’s north coastal Peru. Their art is characterized by monochromatic pottery; fine metal working of copper, gold, silver, bronze, and tumbago (copper and gold); and monumental abode construction in their capital city Chan Chan

1100: Hohokam Culture reaches apex in present day Arizona

1142: Wampum invented by Ayenwatha, which the Haudenosaunee used to record information.

1200-1533: Inca civilization originated in the Peruvian highlands and spreads across western South America

1600–1650: Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl (Texcocan, 1568/1580-1648) illustrates the Codex Ixtlilxochitl with watercolor paintings
1688: European and Mestizo members of the Cuzco School part ways with the Indian painters, allowing them to develop their own styles.

1922: Social Indigenist movement begins in Peru and thrives for three decades

1922: First Santa Fe Indian Market, sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico, is part of the city’s Fiesta celebrations. Called the Southwest Indian Fair and Industrial Arts and Crafts Exhibition, the events showcased artwork at the Palace of Governors Armory Building. The best of show award went to a beadwork display from Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in Montana.

1926: Indigenist Movement formed in Ecuador by Camilo Egas, Oswaldo Guayasamín, and Quechua and Mestizo artists

1927: First Nations art exhibited with Euro-Canadian art in the Exhibition of the Canadian West Coast Art in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa

1928: Kiowa Six participate in the International Art Congress in Prague, Czech Republic. Lois Smoky is not present but her artwork is.

1931: Exposition of Indian Tribal Art opens at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City

1932: Kiowa Six participate in the Venice Biennale. Their art, according to Dorothy Dunn, “was acclaimed the most popular exhibit among all the rich and varied displays assembled.”

1962: The Institute of American Indian Arts is founded in Santa Fe, New Mexico

1965: University of Alaska, Fairbanks, creates their Native Arts Program

1967: Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, hosts its first annual juried, competitive, intertribal art show which continues today

1971: The Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill, Oklahoma, hosts the first Trail of Tears art show, an annual juried, competitive, intertribal art show which also continues today

1971: The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum (now called the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts) is founded by the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, with the mission to focus on contemporary intertribal Native American art

Mission Statement

First American Art Magazine, LLC (FAAM) promotes and contextualizes visual, media, literary, and performing arts of Indigenous Americas from a hemispheric Indigenous perspective. Our goal is to foster critical dialogue about Native art. We provide a forum to bridge the academy and the general public. FAAM examines current and historical issues through the lens of Native art.

Vision Statement

First American Art Magazine, LLC envisions a world with Indigenous cultural sovereignty. We achieve this by articulating and popularizing Indigenous critical theory in ways accessible to Native communities as well as the non-Native art world.